Scroll on to dig into their insights about bullet journaling, digital planners, cute Disney-themed planners, and more! —Yashvi Peeti Every year I buy a fresh A5 dotted notebook in a fun color and follow the layout I’ve been developing over time to track my progress toward my goals. This notebook is the one for me because of its Goldilocks-perfect size, the built-in index and numbered pages, and the dotted pages for writing or drawing lines. The paper withstands fountain pen ink well, if you too are in the society of ink-stained fingers. The two built-in ribbon bookmarks are handy for flipping between the month and the week, or the week and the day if you’re more granular. What I like most is the freedom to make sections tailored to my interests. Lists of ideas to write about, lists of cool things I’ve heard about on podcasts and want to check out, lists of recipes I want to try. Goal tracking works great in these notebooks. The grids make charts simple, to track daily activities like incorporating some movement or conquering that crossword puzzle. Make a dedicated section devoted to a big goal, like getting 500 words written on that novel every day. I could go on. I don’t personally use hand lettering, washi tape, or stickers in my planner (OK, some stickers). Don’t be daunted by the people who’ve adopted bullet journaling as an aesthetic if that’s not what you’re into. Bullet journaling can be bare bones and functional or a crafty hobby in itself. In the end, it’s endlessly adaptable to your own purposes. —Isabelle Popp —Aurora Lydia Dominguez —Cathleen Perez Brenycz And then my husband got an iPad and I thought…I could get one and (among other things, obviously) use a digital planner. I could mess around with as many different kinds of planners as I wanted. And I settled on the Laurel daily planner, which has lots of extras that I don’t use, but which also has hyperlinks from the monthly to the weekly to the daily view. (And I know there are other things that have this type of setup that might not cost as much as a digital planner, and I have tried them, but I’ve discovered that dated planners are very important to me LOL.) I can plot out my week and then go to the daily view, which has three top priorities, a space for all the tasks you want to do, a timeline, and space to write (or import other widgets but I leave it blank for notes). So I can do a bit of big picture recording of my day (when I remember) while also plotting out what I need to do that day. It’s helpful when I have a lot of tasks that I might have been putting off, and I don’t feel as bad about moving tasks forward in a digital format as I did when I tried bullet journaling that one time. Having that giant, very expensive object staring at me all the time makes me more inclined to use it—guilt is a heady motivator. —Jessica Pryde —CJ Connor —Erika Hardison —Jen Zink, Book Riot Podcast Editor
